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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering
Relative Navigation And Control Of A Hexacopter, Timothy Mclain, Randal W. Beard, Robert C. Leishman, John Macdonald
Relative Navigation And Control Of A Hexacopter, Timothy Mclain, Randal W. Beard, Robert C. Leishman, John Macdonald
Faculty Publications
This paper discusses the progress made on developing a multi-rotor helicopter equipped with a vision-based ability to navigate through an a priori unknown, GPS-denied environment. We highlight the backbone of our system, the relative estimation and control. We depart from the common practice of using a globally referenced map, preferring instead to keep the position and yaw states in the EKF relative to the current map node. This relative navigation approach allows simple application of sensor updates, natural characterization of the transformation between map nodes, and the potential to generate a globally consistent map when desired. The EKF fuses view …
Utilizing An Improved Rotorcraft Dynamic Model In State Estimation, Timothy Mclain, Randal W. Beard, Robert C. Leishman, John Macdonald, Jeffrey L. Ferrin, Stephen C. Quebe
Utilizing An Improved Rotorcraft Dynamic Model In State Estimation, Timothy Mclain, Randal W. Beard, Robert C. Leishman, John Macdonald, Jeffrey L. Ferrin, Stephen C. Quebe
Faculty Publications
Multirotor aircraft have become a popular platform for indoor flight. To navigate these vehicles indoors through an unknown environment requires the use of a SLAM algorithm, which can be processing intensive. However, their size, weight, and power capacity limit the processing capabilities available onboard. In this paper, we describe an approach to state estimation that helps to alleviate this problem. By using an improved dynamic model we show how to more accurately estimate the aircraft states than can be done with the traditional approach of integrating IMU measurements. The estimation is done with relatively infrequent corrections from accelerometers (40Hz) and …